You are here

Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth

The Land of Israel has a supernatural quality to it. While under foreign occupation, it resembles an arid desert. However, under Jewish sovereignty, it comes to life, flourishes, and yields great produce. Indeed, for nearly two millennia, as the land switched hands numerous times between various foreign powers, including the Romans, the Arabs and the Turks, the land lay utterly desolate.

Amazingly, the modern rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948 has brought with it an astounding development of the land, to the point where once again the Jewish people can claim a flourishing country all their own. Indeed, we are witnessing the Lord comfort “all her ruins.”

Truly Hashem has comforted Tzion, comforted all her ruins; He has made her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of Hashem. Gladness and joy shall abide there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.Isaiah 51:3 (The Israel Bible™)

For the sake of his beloved friend Yehonatan (Jonathan), King David gives Mefiboshet a place at his table in the royal palace in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).

As Yerushalayim(Jerusalem) is the city of peace, it stands to reason that this is the place where King David made such a peaceful gesture. Hashem (God) intends for Yerushalayim to be a place where all of Israel will be content with one another.

To that end, the holy capital city is not the property of any one tribe. Rather, it belongs to the entire nation, and is the eternal religious and political center of the entire Jewish people.

Mefiboshet lived in Yerushalayim, for he ate regularly at the king’s table. He was lame in both feet. II Samuel 9:13 (The Israel Bible™)

The word hevel (הבל), ‘futile,’ appears many times throughout Ecclesiastes as a description of the pursuit of various physical pleasures. Although the word is translated as ‘futile,’ it literally means ‘vapor’.

Vapor has the power to distort what a person sees. For example, the hot air rising from desert sands creates the mirage of an oasis. In this verse, the author observes that amassing wealth is “hevel.”

More than just futile, the pursuit of wealth is similar to vapor, since it has the power to distort a person’s reality and values. King Solomon warns not to pursue wealth, because one who does so will never be satisfied.

A lover of money never has his fill of money, nor a lover of wealth his fill of income. That too is futile. Ecclesiastes 5:9 (The Israel Bible™)